Sag-preventing latch for overhead swinging doors



June 29, 1965 A. W SCRUGGS 3,191,978

SAG-PREVENTING LATCH FOR OVERHEAD SWINGING DOORS Filed June a, 1963 I N VEN TOR.

M M Y w United States Patent 3,191,978 SAG-PREVENTING LATCH FOR OVERHEAD SWINGING DOORS Arthur W. Scruggs, P.O. Box 43, Bloomington, Calif. Filed June 3, 1963, Ser. No. 285,131 3 Claims. (Cl. 29284) The present invention relates to overhead garage door mechanisms, and in particular to an automatic no-sag lock-up device for raising overhead garage doors from the vertical closed position to a horizontal open overhead position and supporting and locking said garage doors in the open overhead position in such a manner that they can not sag in the middle, and can not close or fall accidently. The door is unlocked by pulling release cable extending downward through the door.

Modern overhead. garage doors, particularly the two car variety, are so constructed and hung from each side that they begin sagging in the middle soon after being built; and the struts usually installed as anti-sag supports are ineffective and due to dampness and heat and cold expansion and contraction are sometimes actually destructive to the corners of the doors. Also the doors are so delicately balanced in their horizontal open overhead position as to be dangerous to life and property as it takes very little wind action or other disturbing influence to dislodge the balance and they close accidently with sometimes disastrous results.

One object of the present invention is to provide a combination housing-handle device for manually raising overhead garage doors from a vertical closed position to a horiso when the door and as it approaches the top stop position the device provides means to actually lift through an anti-friction roller and cam means the weight of the center portion ofthe door to an anti-sag position and thus sustains the door in said position thereby relieving the strain and holding the door up in such a manner that it can not sag in the middle.

Another object of the present invention is to providean automatic spring steel safety-lock device to lock garage doors in a horizontal overhead position so they can not dislodge accidently; a further object is to provide a safety lock release means operable from the opposite side of the door.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a simple, efficient, reliable and inexpensive means for raising and safely supporting overhead garage doors and/or the like in an open, overhead position.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art in the light of the following detailed specification and accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view of flat backed disk-like base element 11 including a weight supporting hold-up cam bracket 12 mounted on garage wall door frame 10.

FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG. 1 showing vertically disposed slab sided cam bracket 12.

FIG. 3 shows combination housing-door-handle of the invention mounted. on closed garage door 14.

FIG. 4 shows open end, tunnel like construction of the combination housing-handle unit 12 of no-sag lock-up invention.

FIG. 5 shows a cross section view of a garage wall comprising a door frame and overhead door in a horizontal overhead position, and cross section cut-away view illustrating position of components of the present invention in the no-sag lock-up engagement.

Referring to drawing in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated:

FIG. 1 is a cross-section of garage wall 10 and a side view of fiat backed base 11 which is mounted on and secured to the garage wall 10 by bolts 22 directly above the door opening and has a vertically disposed slab-sided zontal, open, overhead position,

, 3,191,978 Patented June 29, 1965 weight supporting cam bracket 12 comprising an elongated element with a convex top periphery and a concave underside periphery said cam bracket element extending outward and downward from said base 11 to a smallish roundedend. The top periphery of said cam bracket 12 is designed to receive an anti-friction doorlifting roller 20 in rolling door weight lifting engagement, said roller 20 comes to rest in the slight depression B on top of the periphery of said weight supporting cam bracket 12 and also comprises safety lock notch 13 cut into the underneath periphery of and near the end of said cam bracket 12 and is designed to receive spring steel lock means 18 in automatic safety locked up engagement. FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG. 1 illustrating how slab sided weight-supporting cam bracket 12 extends horizontal-wise out from base 11 at right angles.

The drawing in FIG. 3 shows combination housinghandle door raising means 15 mounted on a vertically disposed garage door 14 in closed position comprising a small base .at the lower end of the handle which is mounted on the door by bolt 21 and extends upward and outward from the door in an arch like contour, forming the handle part, at the peak of the arch the handle ends in a hollowed out head forming the housing part of the element 15. The housing is a tunnel-like structure open at both ends formed by extendingthe side walls downward to intersect the flat topped base 23 which is secured its forward end an automatic spring steel safety lock rneans 18 which fits in the flat top surface of said base 23 and extends back thru said housing in a slightly upwardly curved position. Safety lock release cable means 19 is secured to free end of said automatic safety lock element 18 and extends thru garage door. Also shown is an anti-friction roller spindle 16 which is disposed crosswise thru the hollowed head of said combination housing-handle means 15.

FIG. 4 is an end view of FIG. 3 and illustrates how the tunnel-like housing is constructed with side walls intersecting and becoming a part of the fiat topped base 23 thru which the bolt 17 secures said base 23 to the garage door. FiG. 4 also shows how automatic spring steel safety lock means 18 is secured to the top of said base 23 and how an anti-friction weight-bearing roller 21) is turnably secured in the head of said housing by roller spindle 16. FIG. 4 also illustrates an open tunnel-like space into which the weight-supporting cam bracket 12 enters below roller 211 and above safety lock means 18 for nosag lock-up engagement.

FIG. 5 is a cut-away cross section of the over door section of garage wall 10 and garage door 14 in horizontal, ,open, overhead position. FIG. 5 also shows a cutaway of the combination housing-handle door raising, nos'ag lock-up device in no-sag lock-up engagement and illustrates how the sag weight of the central portion of the garage door is transferred thru bolts 17 and 21 to housing-handle element 15 thence thru spindle 16 to antifriction door bearing roller 20 which in turn rests in the slight depression B on top of the weighbsupporting cam bracket means 12.

Function-wise, assume that garage door 14 is in a vertical closed position, the handle portion of housing-handle element 15 is grasped by the hand and the door is manually raised in the normal manner, and as the door nears the horizontal overhead top stop position, antifriction, weight-bearing roller 24 engages the door sag supporting cam 12 anywhere along the top periphery of said cam, as indicated by letter C, and said roller advances upward, over and bears door sag weight directly on said weight-supporting cam bracket 12. The door is then lifted up from whatever sag position may be existing at the moment to a flat normal no-sag position and anti- 18 snaps up into locked engagement with notch 13. The safety lock element is released by pulling friction weight-bearing roller 20 comes to rest in the slight depression B on top of weight-supporting cam bracket 12. Simultaneous with the above action the upturned spring steel safety lock means 18 is in sliding, spring tension engagement with'the underside of weight-supporting cam 12 and as the top stop position is reached, safety lock safety lock safety lock release cable 19 which extends down thru door 14 thus dislodging the free end of safety-lock element from notch vertical closed condition.

13 and allowing the door to descend to a Garage door-sag at any given time is variable due to 'weather conditions and is the determining factor governing the exact point where the antifriction weight-bearing roller 20 contacts the top periphery of weight-supporting cam 12 during the door raising operation.

Having described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that I do not limit myself to handle adapted for manually raising said door and an open end tunnel like housing, said housing comprising a top, two side walls and a base, an anti-friction roller disposed cross-wise in said housing, said roller adapted to lift said door from an overhead sag position to an overhead no-sag condition, a fiat base mounted on said frame immediately above the door, an elongated cam bracket extending outwardly and downwardly from said base and adapted to engage and support the central weight of the door thru said anti-friction roller, a spring steel safety lock means bolted on top of said housing base, a safety lock notch cut into the bottom periphery of said cam bracket adapted to receive said safety lock means in safety locked engagement, and a safety lock release means extending thru the door.

2. In an overhead swinging door hung from both sides to swing upward from a vertical closed position to an overhead open position, a frame forming a doorway, a fiat backed base mounted on said frame immediately above the door; an elongated, weightsupporting, cam bracket projecting outwardly and downwardly from said base having a generally convex top periphery and a concave bottom periphery, a depression formed in said top periphery; a combination housing-handle door raising means mounted at the top and bottom on the outside of said door and comprising a housing with a tunnel-like opening at one end and an arch-like handle, said housing formed of two side walls and a base for mounting to said door; an anti-friction roller spindle secured crosswise in said housing, an anti-friction, door lifting roller means tnrnably mounted on said roller spindle, said roller means adapted for bearing and transferring the sag weight of the central portion of said door directly to the top periphery of said weight-supporting cam bracket in rolling, over-riding, weight bearing engagement with said weight supporting cam bracket; said cam bracket depression adapted to receive said weight-bearing roller in top overhead position and to support said door in horizontal, open,

no-sag condition.

3. In an overhead swinging door as set forth in claim 1, a bolt hole thru said housing base; an automatic, spring steel safety lock means secured by one end to the inside top of said base by said bolt means and a safety lock release means extending through said door; a safety-lock notch formed in said bottom periphery near the downcam bracket, said notch adapted to receive said safety lock means in safety locked engagement when-said depression receives said roller.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,587,037 6/26 Rudolph 292-303 2,177,275 10/39 Bird 20-16 2,660,765 12/53 Carlson 20-16 2,729,862 1/56 Marjama 20-16 2,828,992 4/58 Palkegyi 292-198 M. HENSON WOOD, JR., Primary Examiner. THOMAS J. HICKEY, Examiner. 

1. IN AN OVERHEAD SWINGING DOOR PIVOTALLY HUNG FROM EITHER SIDE TO SWING FROM A VERTICAL CLOSED CONDITION TO AN OVERHEAD OPER CONDITION, A FRAME FORMING A DOORWAY, A COMBINATION HOUSING-HANDLE MOUNTED AT BOTH ENDS OF THE DOOR, SAID HOUSING-HANDLE COMPRISING AN ARCH-LIKE HANDLE ADAPTED FOR MANUALLY RAISING SAID DOOR AND AN OPEN END TUNNEL LIKE HOUSING, SAID HOUSING COMPRISING A TOP, TWO SIDE WALLS AND A BASE, AN ANTI-FRICTION ROLLER DISPOSED CROSS-WIRE IN SAID HOUSING, SAID ROLLER ADAPTED TO LIFT SAID DOOR FROM AN OVERHEAD SAG POSITION TO AN OVERHEAD NO-SAG CONDITION, A FLAT BASE MOUNTED ON SAID FRAME IMMEDIATELY ABOVE THE DOOR, AN ELONGATED CAM BRACKET EXTENDING OUTWARDLY AND DOWNWARDLY FROM THE BASE AND ADAPTED TO ENGAGE AND SUPPORT THE CENTRAL WEIGHT OF THE DOOR THRU SAID ANTI-FRICTION ROLLER, A SPRING STEEL SAFETY LOCK MEANS BOLTED ON TOP OF SAID HOUSING BASE, A SAFETY LOCK NOTCH CUT INTO THE BOTTOM PERIPHERY OF SAID CAM BRACKET ADAPTED TO RECEIVE SAID SAFETY LOCK MEANS IN SAFETY LOCKED ENGAGEMENT, AND A SAFETY LOCK RELEASE MEANS EXTENDING THRU THE DOOR. 